Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a parts supply apparatus and a parts supply method that supply a parts to a robot performing an assembly operation and a robot system including the parts supply apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
Generally, there has been known, as a parts supply apparatus for supplying a parts to a robot that performs the assembly operation, a configuration in which the parts are contained in a tray and taken out from the tray to make the robot perform an assembly operation.
In recent years, as progress is made from manual assembly to assembly by robots, there is demand for a parts supply apparatus and a parts supply method by which costs can be reduced, an installation area is reduced so that installation can be made in a limited space, and manufacturing can be performed in a short amount of time so that a good productivity is achieved.
A parts supply apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H09-208057, is configured in such a manner that a robot is disposed to take out a parts from a tray at an uppermost level of trays which are stacked and in which parts are contained, and the tray that has been emptied is then moved by a movable apparatus and the emptied tray is stacked.
However, the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H09-208057 has a problem that, in order to take out parts from a tray that is stacked and that contains the parts, an empty tray is required to be moved and then stacked so that an installation area increases since an empty tray stacking portion is disposed at another place. Further, it has a problem that a driving mechanism for unstacking, a driving mechanism for moving the emptied tray and a driving mechanism for stacking the empty tray are required to be provided so that costs for the apparatus are high.
A parts supply apparatus and an assembly system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-240456 include a containing shelf for containing a tray and a mechanism for taking out the tray from the containing shelf and performing assembly on the containing shelf to reduce an installation area.
However, the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-240456, has a problem that since the emptied tray is contained in the containing shelf and then a new tray is taken out, it is required to drive two axes of a horizontal movable mechanism and a vertical movable mechanism so that it takes some time to replace trays and productivity is low.